Russell: ‘Frustrating’ Raikkonen clash cost me first F1 points

George Russell believes he would have been on for his first points finish in Formula 1 had he not been taken out in a “frustrating” collision with Kimi Raikkonen at the Eifel Grand Prix.

The Williams driver suffered race-ending damage to his car after being hit by Raikkonen during a squabble with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel at Turn 1.

Russell was launched airborne by Raikkonen in the impact and sustained suspension damage as well as a puncture, before he ultimately pulled over to the side of the track into retirement.

Raikkonen was handed a 10-second penalty for the collision and also received two penalty points on his licence for the incident, taking the Finn up to four penalty points for the current 12-month period.

“It was obviously frustrating,” Russell said. “I actually overtook Sebastian in the chicane before, but he then got the run on me on the exit, which I don’t think was shown on the TV.

“[That] allowed him to have the DRS and obviously Kimi was behind. I was on the outside, I left plenty of space. But I think Kimi just locked up behind Sebastian and then lost the rear.

“Sometimes it’s racing, we’re all pushing hard and it’s not easy sometimes. But it’s frustrating because the car was feeling good and the way the race went I think we could have scored points. It’s all going against us at the moment unfortunately.”

Russell said he is realistic-enough to realise that Williams’ car is currently not quick enough to earn points on merit, but the Briton says his lack of good luck is becoming frustrating.

“I’m realistic and as nice as it would be to score a point or two or three, ultimately the car is not quick enough,” he explained.

“We need to continue to work really hard to bring more performance to the car because we don’t want to be lucking into these events, we want to be there on merit. And ultimately that’s where we are at the moment.

“The likes of Haas and Alfa, things have just gone their way really in these races. They are no quicker than us and I don’t personally believe they’ve done anything better than us, things have just gone their way when there’s been these very specific opportunities and it hasn’t for us.

“There’s been a number of times when we’ve had really good races and finished quite high up the order relatively but there haven’t been five midfield cars break down which is the difference between scoring points or not.”